Vulcain Cricket

We're big fans of alarm watches — especially the Jaeger-LeCoultre Memovox — but Vulcain was the first to make a working model, and as we all know, vintage collectors love to own the first version of anything.  It also happened that when Vulcain designed this innovative watch, they nailed it on the first go-around. The Cricket wasn’t some delicate novelty — in fact, it accompanied the first expedition to reach the peak of K2. Future advertisements would read, “The teams of all these expeditions have expressed their satisfaction and admiration of the record performance of their Vulcain Cricket, testifying that their running was as faultless and the ringing of the alarm as distinct on the summit of K2 as in the damp jungles of equatorial Africa.” Pretty damned cool if you ask us. This particular example of the Cricket features a 39mm 'oversized' case - housing a white and silver multi-tonal dial with a printer outer track and applied gold-tone indices, a matching gold-tone dauphine handset with a red-tipped alarm hand, and Vulcain's Calibre 120 hand-cranking alarm movement within. Though its dial shows patina and wear throughout, such an oversized version of the famed Cricket is a rare specimen, and is brimming with character.  And who doesn’t love a mechanical alarm? Perhaps only those who have not experienced one! The buzzing vibration positively oozes a certain old-world charm.